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8/26/2011 12:45PM

Obama on Irene: Take Precautions Now

President Barack Obama urged residents of the eastern US in the path of Hurricane Irene to "take precautions now" in advance of what he said is likely to be a "historic" storm, and obey any evacuation orders. Video courtesy of Fox News.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the more your body ... was a few words about Hurricane Irene ... urge Americans to take it seriously ... and provide an overview of our ongoing federal ... preparations for what's likely to be an extremely dangerous ... and costly storm ... Justin be in a conference call with senior members of my emergency response team and residents make sure that we are bringing ... all federal resources to bear ... and employing them properly ... to cope not only with the storm but also its aftermath ... I've also spoken this morning with governors ... and mayors of major metropolitan areas along the eastern seaboard to let them know ... that this administration is in full support of their efforts to prepare for the storm ... and stands ready to fully support the response efforts ... and we will continue to stay in close contact with them ... I cannot ... stress this highly enough ... if you are in the projected path of the skirt ... you have to take precautions now ... don't wait ... don't know why ... we all hope for the best but we have to be prepared for the worst ... all of us have to take this storm seriously ... you need to listen to your state and local officials ... and if you were given an evacuation order ... please call it ... just underscore this point we ordered an aircraft carrier group out to sea ... to avoid the storm yesterday ... so if you're unaware this working you should be preparing now ... if you aren't sure how ... to prepare your family is or your home ... Warner business ... for a hurricane or any other emergency than you can visit ... Ready dot gov ... that's ready dot gov ... or ... least au dot gov ... that's L I S T O dot gov ... now since last weekend ... the MAS been deploying its incident management systems teams to staging areas and communities up and down ... the coast ... of the mine has ... millions of liters of water ... millions of meals and tens of thousands of cots and blankets along with other supplies ... pre positioned along the eastern seaboard ... and the American Red Cross ... has already begun preparing shelters in North Carolina ... and other states ... these resources are all being coordinated with our state and local partners ... and they stand ready to be deployed ... as necessary ... but again ... if you are instructed to evacuee please do so ... it's can take time for first responders to begin rescue operations and to get ... the resources we pre positioned ... to people in need ... so the more you can do to be prepared now ... making a plan ... making supply kits ... nor your evacuation route ... follow instructions of your local officials ... the quicker we can focus our resources after the storm on those who need help most ... to sum up ... all indications point to this being a ... historic irking ... we can predict with her but certainly the impact ... of Irian over the next few days ... the federal government has spent the better part of last week ... working closely with officials and Minister could be affected by the storm ... to see to it that we are prepared ... so now's the time for residents of ... these communities ... in the hours that were made ... to do the same ... and the mum ... and break you get the right for people be keeping people ... closely posted ... in the next twenty four forty eight hours ... thank you very much ...